New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Fantasy Author

Age of X Series

Set in the near future, this new adult series picks up after a
deadly virus has reduced the world's population and restructured
countries and borders. The Republic of North America has fought its
way out of the ashes to become the most advanced nation in the world
by adhering to its policies of forced genetic breeding and denial of
the supernatural. But the RUNA now finds itself questioning its
founding principles as strange forces begin stirring in the world,
forces that a brilliant but decadent exile and an aristocratic super
soldier find themselves in the middle of...

Richelle Mead, the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street
Journal bestselling author of the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines YA
series—whose books have sold more than one million copies in
hardcover—debuts on the Dutton list with Gameboard of the Gods, the
first novel in her Age of X series.

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists,
Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an
investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin
is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back
to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an
aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite
and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills.

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string
of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries
have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races
forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine
are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which
humans are merely game pieces on their board.

Gameboard of the Gods, the first installment of Richelle Mead’s Age
of X series, will have all the elements that have made her YA
Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series such megasuccesses: sexy,
irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; and
relentless action and suspense.

Gameboard of
the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae
Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him.
Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the
supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of
United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge
comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human
control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are
turning against one another in bloody fashion.

Their mission takes a new
twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by
Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia,
the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. Here, in a society where
women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government,
Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to
come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity.

Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly
posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own:
finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago.
But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in
Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back
home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces
the government is determined to keep secret.